[Jabbar et. al., Vol.5 (Iss.

5): May, 2017] ISSN- 2350-0530(O), ISSN- 2394-3629(P)

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Management

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Ali Abdulridha Jabbar *1, Ali Mohammed Hussein 2
*1
Cihan University- Sulimanya / Kurdistan region, Iraq
2
University of Malaysia klentan / Malaysia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.583890

Abstract
Leadership has significant impact on strategic management process. Especially it helps to
determine the vision and mission of the organization. Further, it facilitates the organization to
execute effective strategies to achieve that vision. The purpose of this paper is to find out the role
of leadership in strategy formulation and implementation by reviewing the existing literature.
The study reveals that leadership serves as a link between the soul and the body of an
organization. For the successful implementation of strategies, the challenge of leadership is to be
strong but not rude, be kind but not weak, be humble but not timid, be proud but not arrogant,
have humor but without folly. Leadership has to have the evaluation process to ensure the
effectiveness of the whole process, and this aspect will facilitate to identify the drawbacks and to
make fresh the strategies in line with the change as well. Moreover, this evaluation process is
able to help and sustain the constant growth of the institution. Thus, it can be said that leadership
is known as the nucleus of the organization, and it should have the pivotal role like the role of
blood and brain; as a result, the outcomes of the success can be guaranteed and be shared.

Keywords: Leadership; Strategic Management and Organization.

Cite This Article: Ali Abdulridha Jabbar, and Ali Mohammed Hussein. (2017). “THE ROLE OF
LEADERSHIP IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT.” International Journal of Research -
Granthaalayah, 5(5), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.583890.

1. Introduction

Irrespective of time as well as position, leaders are able to contribute significantly in the way
how a firm functions its activities. Leadership which has effective strategies can work as the
fundamental basis for fruitfully employing the strategic management process. Leaders who
follow strategies are able to expedite the growth of suitable strategic activities, and they specify
the ways to enforce them. These actions work as gateways to higher-average outcomes and
strategic competitiveness. Leaders who work in different institutions are fully conscious about
the requirement to chalk out the plan strategically for the future of their organizations and take
part in the effective enactment regarding these well-planned schemes.

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InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86
In strategic management leader perform the various roles. It introduces the environment for
change. Secondly it creates the leadership team by selecting key players from the organization by
breaking down the current hierarchy at third stage it formulates the vision and strategy by the
help of a visionary process that clarify the strategy for understanding of whole organization
(Moesia, 2007). Then leadership creates an evaluation system that evaluates the strategy at every
stage of the work within the organization. Finally, it helps to change the culture which facilitates
the strategic management (Venohr, 2007).

Generically leader in an organization provide the vision, he strategically think and plan,
administrate the operational activities. Further it tries to fit organization according to the
requirement of situation. Leaders spread energy boost the morale by spirit. It develops the
relationships with all the stakeholders. And most importantly it ensures teaching and learning in
the organization. Leadership is responsible to direct the subordinates to perform the
organizational tasks effectively (Mason, 2011). We can say that strategic leadership is a process
that transforms organization into successful organization by proper strategies. It is the
responsibility of leadership to motivate and inspire the peoples in the organization to work
jointly so that organization’s vision can be translated into reality. Mostly in the organizations
efficient leaders perform the common tasks in the strategy making and executing process. They
develop a strategic vision and mission, sets goals and objectives, craft the strategies, execute it
and then evaluate the performance (James & Grasswitz 2005& Sean, 2005). The achievement of
attaining strategic business objectives, directing the organizations for the sake of viable
development, and being competitive globally in different sectors has positioned a novel
requirement over institutions. There remains a challenge which is to specify the roles of
leadership, and those roles are able to differentiate significantly in terms of organizational
performance. The crucial concern is the role of leadership which needs to be acted on. The
successful growth related to the formation of strategy, and its enactment and assessment
necessitate a constant and corresponding pledge from uppermost leadership, so likely successful
enactment of strategy differs (Chapman, etl, 2002; Mattis, etl, 2001). Leadership demands to
specify novel avenues for the organizations.

2. What is the Role of Leadership in Strategy Management?

Leadership quality plays as a key role in order to form and enforce a strategy. It works as a
linkage which associates the heart of the institution with its body. The pledge kept by the leader
is responsible for encouraging the institutions to become successful, and this success comes out
of making effective decisions for the formulation of strategy and their enactment. If the strategies
are not enacted with perfection, great strategies become insignificant. Strategies formulated
lower than 50% see the light of enactment as there is dearth of leadership skills. Leaders give
directions to what is the course of performance and the ways to accomplish that. Broadly, leader
associated with an institute has the responsibilities for offering the vision, and he taking recourse
of strategies reflects, chalks out the plan, and oversees the functioning undertakings. Moreover,
he makes an attempt to suit his organization in congruity with the needs of the circumstances.
Leaders disseminate energy boosting activities and heightened the morale and the spirit of the
workers.

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InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86
Relationships with all the stakeholders and most importantly it ensure teaching and learning in
the organization. Leadership is responsible to direct the subordinates to perform the
organizational tasks effectively (Mason, 2011). We can say that strategic leadership is a process
that transforms organization into successful organization by proper strategies. It is the
responsibility of leadership to motivate and inspire the peoples in the organization to work
jointly so that organization’s vision can be translated into reality. Mostly in the organizations
efficient leaders perform the common tasks in the strategy making and executing process. They
develop a strategic vision and mission, sets goals and objectives, craft the strategies, execute it
and then evaluate the performance.

The process of strategy formation starts when a leader tries to change the thinking of people.
Everyone should clearly understand the need for change & try to reflect flexible behavior for
proper strategic planning. Leaders should adopt a realistic approach to identify the strategic gaps
so that proper strategies can be formulated (Fairholm, 2009). According to Sophocles “what you
cannot enforce, do not command” For effective implementation leaders has to introduce the need
of change. That can only be possible by creating such a culture that integrates the strategic and
operational activities. Once the culture has developed the whole procedure of strategy
formulation and implementation would be easy (Fourier & Jacob, 2010).

In strategic management leader perform the various roles. It introduces the environment for
change. Secondly it creates the leadership team by selecting key players from the organization by
breaking down the current hierarchy at third stage it formulates the vision and strategy by the
help of a visionary process that clarify the strategy for understanding of whole organization
(Moesia, 2007). Then leadership creates an evaluation system that evaluates the strategy at every
stage of the work within the organization. Finally, it helps to change the culture which facilitates
the strategic management (Venohr & Meyer, 2007).

3. What is Leadership?

The definition of strategic leadership denotes “the leader’s ability to anticipate, envision, and
maintain flexibility and to empower others to create strategic change as necessary” (Hitt, Ireland,
& Hoskisson 2008: 375). Strategic leadership has many facets, and it encompasses managing via
others, and works as a helper for organizations to adjust with the changing world that appears as
happening substantially as ever with the pace of time in today’s global business matrix. Strategic
leadership demands the capability to incorporate and include both of the business environment of
the organizations, which are internal and external. It is also responsible for managing and
encompassing critical information processes. There are many recognizable actions which
determine strategic leadership that can proffer positively towards effective strategy enactment
(see Figure 1), and they are in the following:

 Determining strategic direction

 Establishing balanced organizational controls
 Effectively managing the organization’s resource portfolio
 Sustaining an effective organizational culture
 Emphasizing ethical practices organizational controls

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InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86

Leadership is a set of behavior that enforces the people to formulate the organizational goals and
then motivate them to jointly contribute in order to achieve organization’s goals. Basically leader
plays a vital role in the decision making to ensure efficacy (effectiveness) and success of the
organization. A leader should be supportive in order to guide subordinates. He should treat
everyone equally without any discrimination. He should appreciate every one’s involvement. It is
the responsibility of the leader to build strong relationships within the whole organization in both
vertically and horizontally. Leader should involve everyone in the strategic management process
because it is positively relating with overall performance. It is the commitment of the leader that
helps to achieve the strategic vision. Most importantly leader’s objectives should be integrating
with the organizations strategic goals and objectives to be champion. And for this leader’s power
should be use accurately with honesty and loyalty. Leader should have a clear mental approach
about the need of change and organization’s capabilities. (Sami, Qamar & Khalid, 2011).

Organization’s performance depends upon the strategies that use to achieve company’s vision.
Leadership assimilates the strategy with vision to enrich the capability of the firm to perform
well or according to the need. Today’s business environment is rapidly changing and mostly
leaders try to adopt flexible and process improvement strategies to ensure responsiveness of the
organization towards change. Leadership influenced the whole decision making process and
decision making is the core of the strategic management process. It facilitates the whole process
starting from conceptual framework for strategy formulation and till the evaluation. Especially
strategy implementation is fully depending upon efficient decision making. Basically leadership
influences three areas of organization first, the vision, Secondly the strategies itself and finally
the values. These three components jointly create the culture of the organization. It is the
responsibility of the leader to introduce a clear understanding of the vision throughout the
organization. Everyone should know where we want to be in future. Vision should be simple so

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ICV (Index Copernicus Value) 2015: 71.21 IF: 4.321 (CosmosImpactFactor), 2.532 (I2OR)
InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86
that everyone can easily understand it. Vision is the hub of the organization and is the heart of
strategic management process.

Leadership is responsible for development of strategies to achieve the vision. Basically strategy
formulation means is to provide road map and this road map should be clear and focused. It is
the duty of leadership to relate the strategy process with the vision. It should develop a culture of
learning by providing a clear set of values for the organization. Values demonstrate the behavior
of the organization and lead the organization towards right. Both vision and strategies should
reflect these values. Once the leader understands the importance of values the process of strategy
formulation and implementation becomes easy. The most important role of the leadership is to
integrate the people with the strategic management process. It should involve everyone to ensure
responsiveness towards change. (Jonminerich, 2008).

Strategic leaders make and execute business plans to get positive outcomes. We can say that
strategic leaders are critical for overall success of organization. In an organization leaders
perform various roles depends upon situation. As situation are dynamic as the leader’s role.
Basically leaders provide the vision and set the goals for long run and short run. After
determining the vision their intentions shift towards development of plans or towards strategy
formulation after that they try to involve every one for building a team to execute the plans.
Leaders should ensure their own commitment as well as their subordinates. Then they provide
resources and motivate their team to implement strategy. Finally, they evaluate the whole
process to find the gaps for improvement. Basically, there are nine essential roles.

First of all, leaders try to identify the key problem situations as soon as possible and work as
direction-finder. Secondly, they work as a strategist in whom it is the duty of leader to analyze
the situation and formulate the strategy, which is suitable for the goals. Thirdly leader is an
entrepreneur, fourthly leader serve as mobilize in the organization. It develops and provides
resources for proper execution of strategies. At fifth stage it works as talent promoter and find
out or develops the team of key players required for change implementation. Then it serves the
organization as captivator and develops a long term commitment of every one towards goals. At
seventh stage leaders perform the role of a global thinker and make sure organization’s
alignment with international and national perspective. Then it performs the duty of a change
driver. It creates the environment that is appropriate for change. And finally leader works as
organizations custodian and safe guards the stakes of all stake holders. Leader works as a
resource investigator and disturbance handler. Whole organizations performance depends upon
leadership (Loren and Matthew, 2008).

Leadership is critical to formulate and implement strategy. Formulated strategies are nothing if
they could not be implemented efficiently. Leaders generally divide strategy formulation and
implementation into five steps. And leadership is an important element for whole process.
Firstly, leaders are responsible to create vision that must be attached with the firm’s values and
also vision must be supportive and understandable. Vision tells the strategist about future and
values tells about the past. An important task for leadership is to make a distinction between
vision and mission. Secondly leaders are responsible to set organizational goals and objectives
especially their work is to define long term measurable objectives. Thirdly leaders formulate the
strategies that are suitable for the achievement of goals and objectives. Leaders define what

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InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86
would be most appropriate way to cope with situation requirement. Fourthly leaders perform
their primary function that is the implementation of the strategy. According to Sophocles “what
you cannot enforce, do not command” because strategies are nothing if they can’t have
implemented efficiently and timely. Leaders construct the culture for change and develop the
capabilities for proper implementation of formulated strategy. Leaders should consider every
strategy as temporary because environment is dynamic. So leaders should focus at continuous
improvement of strategic management process. (James and Green, 2005).

4. How Leadership Works in Strategy Management

Leadership has a significant role play in the formation and carrying out of strategies. It is termed
as a linkage which connects the strategic management process with the aim and vision of the
organization. It begins the strategic thought by offering vision. After that, it works as a
foundation to cushion culture where everybody realizes what are the ways to do, and what are
the prevalent values regarding the firm. Fundamentally, values offer the direction (Mosia &
Veldsman, 2004). The responsibility lies on the leadership to familiarize the values or a culture
pertinent to corporate. The vision of the leader itself proffers base line strategy formation and the
pledge of the leadership makes sure the enactment of strategy (Fairholm, 2004).Formulated
strategies can’t be implemented without the involvement of every one. Everyone should
understand the need of change and should contribute their effort to efficiently implement the
strategies. And only leadership can inspire and motivate the people to bring change because
people always resist change. Leadership works to find out the gaps by carefully scan the
environment both internal and external. And develop plans to fill these gaps by implementation
of plans (Ascot, 2008).

5. Establishing Vision of the Organization

To put aim and vision into order might be considered as leaders’ the most significant liability.
The vision makes strategic leaders able to determine the norms that offer the direction and larger
extents for the enterprise. It offers the basis which enables the authorization of persons to align
with independence, judgment, and initiative. Vision must be both broad and specific – broad
enough to capture the hopes, dreams, and desires of a knowledge-based work force, and specific
enough so that individuals can define the scope of their own work in the fulfillment of the vision.

I. Leader As An Innovator
To bring novelty within the whole institution is considered as the main job of leadership. The
responsibility lies on the leadership is to take innovative strategic process, and that starts from
thought to evaluating performance to make sure competitive advantage. To look after the whole
organization. Leader should care about every aspect that can ensure the effectiveness in the
organization. It should carefully develop and execute strategies because strategies are the
stairway towards the vision and mission.

II. Leader As An Analyst

In the strategic management process, it is the responsibility of leader to analyze the situation to
find the gap between current and desired state. Further it is the duty of leader to formulate the
plans to overcome the gaps according to the requirement of situation. Strategies based at the

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analysis of leaders so we can say that an important task of leadership is to scan the organization’s
environment carefully. It is the basic function of leadership to organize or streamline the whole
organization’s working especially the planning and executing of strategies. Because once they
organize the system the change management is no more difficult. Leaders cannot lead efficiently
till they cannot organize.

III. Leader As A Decision Maker

Leaders make decisions that help to achieve vision so the most important role of leadership is to
make decisions. Leaders are responsible for proper functioning of the organization. So they have
to decide what to do, how to do and by whom. Whole strategic management process depends
upon the decision making of leader. Leaders decide how to achieve goals. What type of
strategies should be and how they should implement? Leader as a collaborator: leadership
provides the basis for strategy formulation. And to implement the strategies efficiently there is a
need of resource collaboration. It is the responsibility of leader is to provide all the required
resources. To fulfil the demand of organization leaders, have to collaborate with other. They
make alliances with other organizations. The key task they perform is to create networks that
align the organization with environment both internal and external, also locally and globally.

6. Conclusion

Leadership means taking up responsibilities. Leaders who are responsible make sure the efficacy
of the process related to management. It offers the basis for strategy thought-out plan and by the
offer of vision, it guides the organization curving into strategy formation. When it makes an
attempt to formulate strategy process, it gives a try to bring into line the organization along with
the necessary variation of the matrix. Then it gives attention to the enactment of the strategy
where the main emphasis of the leadership goes to attain the vision by accomplishing the
thought-out strategies. The topmost significant activity of leadership relates the alignment of its
vision with the goals and objectives of the organization that result in having an organization’s
competitive nature with the effective vibrant milieu; on the other hand, it can train and encourage
the workers of the organization to attain the goal and vision. Finally, leadership has to have the
evaluation process to ensure the effectiveness of the whole process, and this aspect will facilitate
to identify the drawbacks and to make fresh the strategies in line with the change as well.
Moreover, this evaluation process is able to help and sustain the constant growth of the
institution. Thus, it can be said that leadership is known as the nucleus of the organization, and it
should have the pivotal role like the role of blood and brain; as a result, the outcomes of the
success can be guaranteed and be shared. The emotion which has the high value becomes winner
in the end. The leaders who provide blood, works very hard always become the recipient of lion
shares from their followers, and those who provide security and good times when it comes to the
pinch, human beings are more known as heroic (George Orwell).

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ICV (Index Copernicus Value) 2015: 71.21 IF: 4.321 (CosmosImpactFactor), 2.532 (I2OR)
InfoBase Index IBI Factor 3.86
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*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ali.uum90@gmail.com

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